Honest question. Do you think the GNOME project is as healthy today as it was, say, 4 years ago? Benjamin Otte explains that no, it isn't. GNOME lacks developers, goals, mindshare and users. The situation as he describes it, is a lot more dire than I personally thought.

It shouldn't even have to be said on this site, but I'm sure you know very well that's not true of all OSS projects. The very foundation of Ubuntu, the driving force behind its existence, was openness and ease of access for all people everywhere. Even though the project has drifted into a different direction, it still has nothing to do with developers trying to out-leet each other.

There are hundreds of OSS projects out there trying to make a better world for everyone, not just to satisfy a developer's itch. But even the latter category are almost always done in good faith.